Treasure Lace

This shawl has came a long way as it has taken me almost 5 months to make it happen. I have never worked on a project for so long & put so much effort into it. My apologies to those of you who have seen the shawl way back in early Dec & had waited patiently for the pattern. I think I owe all of you an explanation ......

...... it started way back in Nov last year when my dear friend, Helen gave me 4 skeins of Handmaiden Cashmere & Silk. Helen was clearing her house & she knew that she will not have the time to use it. As the yarn was too gorgeous to be sitting in her stash, she wanted me to use it. I knew Helen loves this yarn & she had bought it in her favorite color & I knew she will want the yarn knitted up.

So I decided to design a shawl with the yarn & knit it up for Helen's birthday in January. The timing was really bad as I was leaving for a 5 week holiday soon. But I managed to decide on a design & knit the shawl all in 3 weeks. I was so pleased with it & had to show it to the ladies in my knitting group & they loved it. Then came the requests for a pattern but my initial thought was that it was a special design for a dear friend & I am not writing up the pattern.

I gave Helen the shawl on her birthday & she was delighted with it & again the requests for a pattern came. Helen also encouraged me to write up the pattern & this time I relented & started working on it.

My initial notes were quite brief, so I had to knit the shawl again & this time, I used Malabrigo Lace as another option & also I wanted one in a smaller size. The 1st shawl that I knitted for Helen was quite large as Helen is a tall lady & she needs the length to wrap around her. Helen's shawl is 80" long. The 2nd shawl that I knitted is 60" long & it is just right for me. I love the feel of Malabrigo lace as it's so soft .....

By then, it was Feb & the start of a new school term. That delayed the writing of the pattern but I managed to get it out to the test knitters (who were waiting eagerly for the pattern). While the pattern was being test knitted, I decide to do my own test knitting & knitted the 3rd shawl in Handmaiden Sea Silk .....

Again, the shawl turned out great & I decided to send it to a dear friend in Singapore whom I recently spend some time with during my holidays there.

The next problem was deciding on a name for the shawl. As it is an Estonian lace pattern, I decided to translate the name of the stitch pattern - Treasure Lace. I think the name fits the shawl as it is Helen's treasure that started this whole process.

Treasure Lace, in 2 sizes, is now ready to meet the outside world. The pattern is up for sale on Ravelry & it had came a very long way .......